Displayer for greeting cards or other merchandise



May 7,1957 CALLER 2,791,048

DISPLAYER FOR GREETING CARDS OR OTHER MERCHANDISE Filed May 20, 1955 2 Shee ts-Sheet 1 INVENTQR.

I summon CALLER- ATTORNEYS May 7, 1957 s. CALLER 2,791,043

' DISPLAYER FOR GREETING CARDS, OR OTHER MERCHANDISE} Filed May 20, 1953 2 Sheets-Shet 2 l l I INVENTOR.

ISOLOMON CALLER 7,761 1? ATTDRN EYS United States My invention relates to displayers of articles of merchandise, particularly greeting cards, although not limited thereto. The displayer which forms the present invention is designed to display greeting cards in a new and novel manner and accordingly an object of the invention is the provision of a displayer of such character.

Essentially this invention consists of a continuously rotating housing supported tent-wise at its top by a central post set securely upon a suitable platform. The housing rotates freely and evenly due to motion supplied from a suitably connected motor. Upon the sides of said housing are mounted by means of suitable brackets, one or more horizontal rows of greeting cards, or other articles in openable or easily removable sections, covers, or split parts side jointed or loosely fitted, or whole articles secured on the surface of the said housing all of which articles have parts which may be turned about a vertical axis. Each of said articles is operatively connected with a lever that extends through and is pivoted to the housing at a point intermediate its length. One extremity or arm is outside the housing and is attached to the article or its openable portion. The other arm on the other side of the pivot is on the inside of the housing with its end so shaped and located as to make periodic engagement with a fixed cam as the housing rotates.

As the housing rotates each article affixed thereto comes in turn to a front position as regards the viewer. The articles which are shown as greeting cards are in one or more horizontal rows and as they approach the front position they are then consecutively opened, the fly leaf of each card being brought around in a sweeping arc of about 180 to expose its inner contents, structure or other important characteristic used in the art of display advertising. As the rotation of the housing slowly continues, these articles are automatically closed by reverse movement of the actuating lever to be brought back to their original condition on the surface of the housing as they pass away from front view. Each following article in the same horizontal row comes on to take the place of the previous article as viewed from the front with the same continuous opening and closing performance before the viewer.

An important modification of this invention is that instead of a cylindrical housing in rotary motion we may substitute a flat monoplane housing in reciprocal motion against stationary cams or the same housing in stationary position with moving cams operating against it, without changing the essential character of the invention. Such modification is important in view of limited depth of space available in certain desirable advertising locations.

This rotary displayer is of a convenient size suitable for displaying for complete inspection any small articles of merchandise of the type which may be opened and. closed. It is of light weight, built of readily available non costly materials. Anyone skilled in the art may readily duplicate it with a minimum of hand tools. However, large ones could be built as well.

The novel construction of the invention as well as the means of operation, will become apparent by reference to the following description, in connection with accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective viev. of the upper part of a cylindrical housing showing only one horizontal row of atent C greeting cards, with an opened card in a front viewable position. The lower part of the housing is broken away to show a simple form of rotating mechanism.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal sectional view through the upper part of the device above the cards shown in Fig. 1 showing the nature of the cam and lever action.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing one of the levers in intermediate position as it is being actuated by the cam.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged elevation of the leaf turning mechanism taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged elevation of another form of leaf turning mechanism as viewed from the interior of the housing.

The numeral 1 designates the housing mounted tentwise with its top 2 supported at its center on post 4. Post 4 is a pole of metal piping mounted securely by suitable means 5 in vertical position on a base 6. The housing is rotatably supported in any convenient manner.

3 The construction shown comprises a 'pulley 7 and connected spider 8 which in turn carries the housing. Pulley 7 is free to rotate on post 4, and there is adequate clearance 9 between the bottom of the housing and base 6.

The housing 1 is shown rotating on post 4 in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. l. A horizontal row of greeting cards of which three cards 10, 11 and 12 are fully visible, are mounted around the periphery of hous-- ing 1 by suitable brackets or clips 13 and 14. Card 11 is a greeting card in the front position as regards the viewer and in open stage with the opened part or front leaf at 15.

Cards 10 and 12 are greeting cards in the closed state with card 10 just about ready to open as it is in the process of being rotated towards the position now occupied.

v by card 11. The third card 12 in this horizontal row is shown closed and all of the cards in the row on the back side are closed the same as cards 10 and 12.

Numeral 16 designates the opening and closing arm of the lever mechanism which is pivoted at 17. Each arm 16 is attached to the opening fold of each greeting card by means of a clip 18, slidable on arm 16. The clip holds the fold securely but slides along arm 16 as the arm swings in the opening and closing operation. This is necessary to avoid tearing the folder, since the folder and arm swing in operation about two different centers.

Numeral 34 designates openings in the cylindrical housing 1 adjacent to the folded edge of each greeting card. The continuation of each arm 16 passes through its opening to the interior of the housing and continues as at 19 as an integral part with the outer arm 16. At the opening 34 is afiixed pivot 17 which, as shown in Fig. 3, has upper and lower extensions 17a and 17b. .These extensions are screwed or otherwise fastened to the inner wall of the housing 1.

The inner end of arm 19 as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 is curved as at 20 to an extent which will cause it to engage a cam 21, which cam is fixed with respect to post 4. Cam 21 extends radially from post 4 so that its extreme end will lie in the orbit :of the rotation of arm 19. Cam 21 on engaging the curved end 20 of.

arm 19, causes the arm 19 to slide inwardly along the cam, turning the arm about pivot 17 and thus swinging arm 16 clockwise from the position of card 10 to that of card 11.

stationary cam 21. and 19 constitute a single lever mechanism which "is pivoted at 17 at each opening 34.

, shown in Fig. I.

A spring 22, suitably related to the lever and the housing, holds arm 16 normally in the position shown with cards 10 and 12, and after the arm 16 has been swung to the open position of card 11, the spring, upon release of arm 19 from cam 21, will return arm 16 and the attached front leaf of the card to normal closed position.

The portion of the lever intermediate arms 16 and 19 is fashioned from suitable gauge wire as in Fig. 4 to cooperate with hinge 17; The lever member is formed around pivot 17 and a coil-spring 22 has one end wound around the vertical portion 23 asshown at 24, and the other end is in fixed engagement with the housing as at 25.

Thespring 22 in its normal condition is so coiled as to hold arm 16 in the closed position of the card. It is thus clearly seen that when end .20 .of arm 19 strikes cam 21 arm 16 will be forced to swing clockwise and coil spring 22 will wind up sufiicientlyso that when arm 19 is brought tothe end'of its-engagement with cam 21, coil spring 22 will unwind to force arm 16 back to its original position of rest thereby closing the folder of the greeting card. It will be appreciated that other types of springs could be used for returning arm 16 to original position, the spring 22 merely being illustrative of one suitable form.

It might be mentioned again that the curvature in arm 19 is inwardly away from the housing and the initial point of contact with cam 21 as shown in Fig. 2 is enough inwardly of pivot 17 to insure that the arm will slide inwardly along the surface of the cam as rotation of the housing continues. This is shown in'Fig. 3. After pivot 17 passes the end of cam 21, the arm 19 will then be swung further in a clockwise direction with the end of cam 21 engaging arm 19 as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. In this way the full opening movement of arm 16 is achieved.

An elementary motor drive'for rotating the housing is Motor 26, secured to base 6 drives belt27, which in turn drives pulley 7 which is secured to spider 8. Bearing 29 supports pulley 7 and the housing on member for easy rotation.

A modified form of lever is shown in Fig. 5 in which the arms are of sheet material instead of wire. The outer arm 30 carried a sliding clip 31 adapted to engage and hold the upper edge of the card cover or folding portion. The intermediate portion of the lever as at 32 is pivoted on shaft 33 which is fixed at its upper and lower ends to the housing 1. The lever passes inwardly through opening 34 with an inner arm'35 which is curved inwardlyat 36 to make proper sliding contact with cam 21 when the two engage as the housing rotates inthe direction of the arrow.

Here it should be noted that Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate onlypart of the tent-like housing which in practice extends to a height to provide for several rows of greeting cards from top to bottom. Likewise, there are several cams like ,cam 21, one for each horizontal row of cards.

I claim:

1. A display device for swinging the front leaf of a folded article. from substantially closed to substantially open position whereby when in open position the interior facesrof said articlemay be viewed, said device comprisinga mounting to which the rear leaf of an article may be affixed, means for moving said. mounting in a horizontal direction, a lever pivoted on said mounting, said pivot being in the vicinity of the folded edge of said article, one arm of said lever extending to a position which would bealong the top edge of an article affixed to said mounting, means for securing said arm to the front leaf of-a mounted article, the other arm of said lever extending oppositely to said one arm, a fixed cam positionedto engage and turn said other arm of said lever as said mounting ,moves past said cam, whereby said one arm will .be swung through an arc, and spring means for returning said lever to initial position as permitted by movement .ofsaid mounting with respect to said cam.

2..A displaydevice as set forth in claim 1, said mounting carried by a vertical post and means for causing said mounting to rotate continuously about said post.

3. A display :device as set forth in claim 2, said cam associated with said post and extending radially there from.

4. A display device as set forth in claim 1, said mounting comprising a cylindrical housing having sufiicient circumferential area to receive a plurality of articles on the same level.

5. A display device for swinging the front leaf of each of a plurality of folded articles from substantially closed to substantially open and thenback to substantially closed position, whereby when in open position the interior faces of each said article may be viewed, said device comprising atnbular housing mounted for rotation on a vertical axis, a plurality of vertically pivoted horizontally swinging levers, said lever pivots carried by said housing, one arm of said lever being exterior of said housing and the other arm being interior of said housing, spring means for normally positioning the exterior arm close to said housing, means for connecting each. said exterior arm to the article leaf that is to be turned, a cam fixed interiorly of said housing in the horizontal plane of the interior arms of said levers, said interior arms successively engaging said cam as said housing rotates to swing said interior arms through an arc and correspondingly swinging said exterior arms, said spring means returning said arms to normal position after each said interior arm has become disengaged from said cam.

'6. A display device as set forth in claim 4, said housing havingmeans for fastening a plurality of articles on the face thereof, each said fastening means located so that the upper edge of the leaf to be folded will be adjacent said exterior arm andthe vertical folded edge of each s'aid'article will be in the vicinity of said pivot whereby saidexterior arm and leaf when connected by said securing means may swing outwardly together as said cam actuates the interior arm.

7. A display device for opening and closing a foldable portion of an article, said device comprising an article support and cam movable with respect to each other, a lever pivoted to said support intermediate its ends to provide two arms, one arm normally positioned with respect to said support to engage said cam as the support and cam are moved relative to each other thereby to move the arms of said lever through an arc, the other arm normally positioned adjacent the position that will be occupied by the foldable portion of an article when in p'osition on said support, means associated with said other arm'for connecting the latter with the foldable portion, and means for returning said lever to normal position when disengaged from said cam.

8. A display device as set forth in claim 7, and an article with a foldablc portion mounted on said support, said foldable portion being connected to said other arm.

9. A display device comprising a vertical surface, an article with a foldable portion afiixed to the front of said surface, a lever comprising two arms pivoted with respect to said surface, one arm of said lever connected to said. foldable portion, another arm of said lever extend- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 491,907 Smith Feb. 14, 1893 l,399,783 Mayer Dec. 13, 192]. 2,494,453 Reck Jan. 10, 1950 

